Why [me]: Elan's story

What do a cash register in Los Angeles, six years in Italy and a pop-up restaurant in Northeast DC have in common? They’re all a part of Elan Bar’s restaurateur journey. How did this teenage cashier-turned-World-Bank-worker-turned-restaurant-operator become the Partnerships Operations Manager at [me]? And what’s the note on that whiteboard sitting on his desk about? 

At a local restaurant in his hometown of Los Angeles, 16-year-old Elan took his first job as a cashier. His dad owned a small business nearby. He soon became familiar with bussing tables, working the cash register and the typical day-to-day of a restaurant worker. While in college, he spent two years working for a catering company in Santa Barbara.

From big fancy weddings to small-feel family Bar Mitzvahs, Elan saw a new side of hospitality. Not only did it bring people together, but it was also deeply intertwined with milestones, memories and the feeling of being a part of something bigger than yourself. 

After college, Elan spent a few years away from hospitality. He moved to Italy for six years before coming back to the US. He decided to move to DC for grad school, where he studied Economics and International Relations. “I did some very DC things for a few years,” he recalled. And very DC, indeed. He worked for the World Bank and then a strategic advisory firm for a few years. Eventually, while between jobs, “an opportunity to join a company called Cater2Me came up. They were kind of a catering concierge company.”

Elan took on an operations and account management role there, coordinating catering between local restaurants and DC-based corporations. He later became head of the DC office and eventually Director of Account Management & Operations for the entire company. “The idea was that offices would get local flavors. They weren’t just getting big national chains. We were really trying to pull from the best of what the city had to offer. I really liked getting to work closely with independent restaurant operators.” 

Little did he know, those relationships he built with local restaurant operators would open up even more (delicious) doors. Through one of the chefs Elan met, he was given the opportunity to open a restaurant space in Northeast DC. He named it District Space.

“It was fully built but vacant,” he recalled, “The chef I knew was using the kitchen there, but the front of house was empty. So I started a pop-up space where we hosted different chefs, bartenders and people touching the food and beverage industry who wanted a venue they could use for whatever vision they had. It was an opportunity for chefs who were considering opening up their own brick-and-mortar but weren't fully ready to make the plunge to develop some brand awareness. A few of the chefs I worked with now own successful restaurants in DC and Baltimore,” (shout out to Little Donna’s in Baltimore and Ama in Capitol Hill!). 

Two and a half years later, right before the start of the 2020 COVID pandemic, the pop-up closed, and Elan was on to his next venture. He joined a restaurant group in Northwest DC with the original intent of helping them open a Mexican restaurant. Unfortunately, it was April of 2020.

His role changed from helping the restaurant group with back-end operations to helping them navigate the pandemic. He helped manage loan programs and supported their back-of-house operations. This is where he first met [me]. 

One of our [me]ople, Nate Klebanow, sold Elan the MarginEdge software, which he used at all three restaurants for the restaurant group. By the end of the pandemic, Elan was ready for a change in his career. “The work had gotten much more in the weeds with restaurant operations. MarginEdge was a great tool for this, helping us shave a few percentage points off of our food cost and claw back a few hours of labor. I realized I wanted to go back into working something broader than just the restaurants I was working with at the time.”

So, Elan decided to try a cold outreach to now Senior Product Manager Eric Jeffay. Eric was happy to help, and turns out, MarginEdge was in the early days of building out a partnerships team. He ended up joining as a Partnerships Manager. 

More recently, Elan stepped into a new role: Partner Operations Manager, where he focuses on internal and external reporting, leveraging AI and demonstrating the value MarginEdge brings as a partner. “I have a note on my whiteboard on my desk, something like 6,283. That was the number of customers we had the day I joined two years ago. I look at the number, and it’s like now we’ve hit 10,000, then 11,000. It’s bananas.” 

One of his favorite things about [me] is how “we intentionally set ourselves apart. When you’re talking to partners, and you’ve both come from the restaurant space, there's an immediate comfort and familiarity there that makes the role a lot easier.”

In his free time, he loves traveling with his wife and daughter (including a recent trip to Taiwan and the Philippines), cooking and spending time with their 20+ person friend group. A good story is like a really good dish; it can take a lot of moving pieces for it to all come together, but when it does, it’s worth the journey to get there. Elan’s is a lot like that. 

He’s thrilled to continue his work on the partnership team, and throughout all the twists and turns that make up his story, we’re so glad that [me] is a part of it.